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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Toronto, October 9, 2012 — The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian) will celebrate its 16th annual edition this year with more screenings, international guests and special events as it continues its expansion outside the downtown Toronto core to bring Richmond Hill residents a taste of the best in Asian cinema.Founded in 1997, Reel Asian began as a 3-day event established in response to meet the needs of an existing demand for Asian films in Toronto, and has since grown to a 10-day multi-city annual event attracting over 10,000 people. Reel Asian strives to develop programming that reflects the cultural diversity of Canada and increase public understanding and appreciation of the artistic, social and cultural contributions of those of Asian heritage through film. This year’s festival will take place November 6-11 in Toronto and November 16-17 in Richmond Hill to present 60 films and videos from 14 countries including Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kashmir, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.Highlights include

Canadian Spotlight on MICHAEL FUKUSHIMA: THE ART OF PRODUCING ART (Producer/Director Michael Fukushima in attendance)

Canadian shorts are included in: ONCE LOST, NOW FOUND, IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK, ESCAPE OF REALITY,HARD LOOK and UNSUNG HEROES (Various filmmakers in attendance)

SPECIAL GALLERY EXHIBITIONS: COLLECTOR(S) and AUTUMN COLOURS AFTER ZHAO MENGFU

Continuing to engage with pan-Asian experimental installations, Reel Asian presents two exciting off-screen projects, each with a unique focus on video art. Hosted at TPW R&D, InnisCollege, East Gallery and the Monarch Festival Hub.

PITCH COMPETITION

Reel Asian's 7th Annual Pitch Competition - So You Think You Can Pitch? - is back for 2012. A collaboration between Reel Asian and Charles Street Video (CSV), this competition features prizes worth a combined value of more than $35,000. Teams of filmmakers will have six minutes each to pitch their projects to vie for $2,000 in cash; a brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1; $10,000 (emerging category) and $18,000 (professional category) worth of production, post services and artist’s fees at CSV.

REEL ASIAN HEADS TO RICHMOND HILL

As part of our continuing initiative to reach new audiences beyond the downtown core, Reel Asian returns to the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts for its 2nd Annual Richmond Hill weekend film festival. We will be opening with the Canadian premiere of FloatingCity with Hong Kong veteran director Yim Ho in attendance and closing the uptown festival with Yung Chang’s highly anticipated documentary The Fruit Hunters.

Yearning to experience all the firsts of a young girl in love, terminally ill Shiqiao records her memories on a cassette tape when a high school crush reappears in her world. Starring two of Asia’s rising young stars Mark Chao and Angelababy.

Canadian Spotlight | Wed Nov 7, 5:30 PM | InnisTown Hall

MICHAEL FUKUSHIMA: THE ART OF PRODUCING ART

Award-winning producer Michael Fukushima investigates the role of creativity and demystifies the producing process. Fukushimaand several directors will be in attendance to address topics unique to creative producing such as risk taking, building creative teams and the vagaries of success.

Focusing on one of Japan’s most revolutionary film directors, Grandrieux’s portrait finds Masao Adachi in Tokyo and unfolds as a conversation about revolution, desire and cinema. Co-presented by Reel Asian & TIFF.

Shorts Presentation | Wed Nov 7, 7:15 PM | InnisTown Hall

ONCE LOST, NOW FOUND

Presenting meditations on memory and loss, connection, and pure joy, these films address some of the most powerful yet peripheral facets of human experience with quiet restraint and creative narratives. Including work by Keith Lock, Quek Shio Chuan, Christopher Makoto Yogi, Han Han Li and Kimi Takesue.

A North Korean migrant worker and young gay man are trapped by their social status, both physically and psychologically in the heartless megacity of Seoul in this dark and dreamy film by internationally acclaimed indie director Kim Kyung-mook.

This charming romantic follow up to last year’s Surrogate Valentine finds singer songwriter Goh Nakamura on the wrong side of love again. While nursing a broken heart, a Vegas roadtrip yields unexpected results.

Shorts Presentation | Thu Nov 8, 6:00 PM | AGO Jackman Hall

UNSUNG VOICES

Reel Asian proudly presents our inaugural Summer Youth Video Production Workshop, which launched this past summer with a merry band of intrepid youth who possessed little to no formal filmmaking experience, but had great stories to tell.

Shot in Director Huang Ji’s hometown in Hunan, this quietly disturbing autobiographical and award-winning debut feature uncovers the taboo subject of family abuse through the eyes of 14-year-old Honggui.

The first feature film from acclaimed visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija is an exquisitely photographed, minimalist “portraiture” of retired rice farmer Lung Neaw; a quiet and boyish man who spends his idle days conversing with neighbors, doing odd jobs and walking through the jungle.

The driver for a corrupt politician gets embroiled in a botched kidnapping and must traverse the seedy underbelly of Manila to save his daughter in this gritty noir.

Youth Shorts Presentation | Fri Nov 9, 1:00 PM | AGO Jackman Hall

ESCAPE OR REALITY

Want to get away? You may or may not find what you’re looking for. These stories show us the potential and pitfalls of escaping from life’s impositions. Including work by Jack Shih, Leslie Supnet, Jeff Tran, Louis Yeum, Kim Young-sam, Eri Asai and Mina Son.

Inspired by the real-life dancing rehabilitation program that went viral on YouTube, Prison Dancer tells the personal, poignant, and hilarious stories of six Filipino prison dancers whose group dancing turned a maximum-security prison into a world stage. This unique presentation will integrate on-screen projection and live performance from the cast.

Upon the beautiful but troubled DalLake in Kashmir, a young boatman’s world is opened up by a visiting scientist in this lyrical drama about friendship, family and home. Winner of two Sundance awards.

Feature Presentation | Fri Nov 9, 9:00 PM | AGO Jackman Hall

HOMETOWN BOY

Director Yao Hung-yi | China/Taiwan 2011 | 72:00 | Canadian Premiere

Famous Chinese artist Liu Xiaodong returns home after 30 years to paint portraits of his boyhood friends while discovering the passage of time and economic developments that have altered the character of his rural hometown. Produced by iconic Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Feature Presentation | Fri Nov 9, 11:00 PM | The Royal

TATSUMI

Director Eric Khoo | Singapore 2011 | 98:00 | Toronto Premiere

The fascinating life and sinister stories of legendary manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi are brought to life on the big screen in this animated biography about the man who pioneered gekiga, a genre of dark adult-themed comics. Tatsumi premiered at Cannes in 2011.

A professor traces rumours revealing his wife has become a possessed shaman in this mesmerizing exploration of the spirit world. A Fish is Reel Asian’s first 3D film presentation.

Feature Presentation | Sat Nov 10, 2:15 PM | The Royal

THE MIRROR NEVER LIES

Director Kamila Andini | Indonesia 2011 | 100:00 | Toronto Premiere

Reaching beneath the mere beauty of the renowned Wakatobi region comes this award-winning coming-of-age story about the tenuous relationships between sea and community, mother and daughter, life and death.

Trinidad-born Toronto filmmaker Richard Fung takes an inquisitive food journey through the Caribbean and India to discover the mouth-watering roots of one of his (and Toronto’s) favourite foods, the dal puri, most commonly known as the roti.

Jake Shimabukuro plays the ukulele but not like anything ever seen or heard before in this rock documentary on the pioneering Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso who propelled this simple four-string instrument to dazzling heights. The screening includes a live performance produced by torontoUKES and the Corktown Uke Jam

Feature Presentation | Sat Nov 10, 8:15 PM | The Royal

WOLF CHILDREN

Director Mamoru Hosoda | Japan 2012 | 117:00 | Canadian Premiere

From director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars) comes his latest animated masterpiece about Hana, a young woman who falls in love with a werewolf and bears wolf children.

Director Debbie Lum | USA 2012 | 85:00 | Toronto Premiere
Stephen is an aging white male with “yellow fever”. Sandy is the Chinese bride he met online. See if their marriage can make it through the cultural barriers and battle of the sexes in this intimate and quirky personal documentary.

Shorts Presentation | Sun Nov 11, 3:00 PM | The Royal

HARD LOOK

From the full frontal stare of an unbatting, mascara-laced eye to the dispassionate gaze of a child who has seen it all, these films consider fallen heroes and arrested dreams. Including work by Nobu Adilman, Eui Yong Zong, Hayoun Kwon, Wesley Cho, Lou Nakasako, Victoria Molina de Carranza and Jahel José Guerra Roa.

Omnibus Presentation | Sun Nov 11, 5:15 PM | The Royal

10+10

Taiwan 2011 | 115:00 | Toronto Premiere

Twenty of Taiwan’s top young and veteran directors each direct five-minute shorts to highlight the uniqueness of Taiwan. The results are a panorama of Taiwanese society ranging from thriller to silent cinema to dark comedy. Including work by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Arvin Chen and Chang Tso-chi.

Directed by pioneering Hong Kong New Wave auteur Yim Ho, FloatingCity tells the true story of Bo Wah-Chuen (Aaron Kwok), as he rises from being an orphan on a Chinese fishing boat to the upper echelons of the notorious Imperial East India Trading Company.

Writer and co-Director Yang Yi-Chien, herself a twin, reaches into the emotional side of relationships between twin siblings in this charming Taiwanese film for all ages. Winner of Best Narrative Feature and Best Screenplay at the Taipei Film Festival.

Celebrated Japanese actor Koji Yakusho plays a lonely lumberjack whose life is drastically changed when he’s unwittingly enlisted into helping a spineless young filmmaker to complete his low budget zombie movie.

Award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker Yung Chang’s The Fruit Hunters is a globetrotting tour of faraway places, filled with eccentric people to whom fruit is a way of life and not just a suggested daily dietary recommendation.

· Walk-up sales begin at 12:00 PM on October 10 – November 3 through T.O. Tix at Yonge-Dundas Square(open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12:00 PM-6:00 PM). For future-day tickets during the festival, see below.

· Charge-by-phone: 1-888-222-6608 beginning 6:00 PM on October 9 until November 5. Phone sales continue during the festival (see below).

· Group Sales available by calling 416-703-9333 between 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM on weekdays. No pre-arranged group sales during the festival. Last day for group sales is November 2.

DURING THE FESTIVAL

Future Day Tickets

· Online sales through reelasian.com until 11:55 PM on the day before the show.

· Walk-up sales (cash only) at the Future-Day Sales Desk at each venue, starting one hour before the first show of the day at the following venues: Innis Town Hall, November 7 & 8; Jackman Hall, November 8; Royal Cinema, November 11 & 12 – this desk closes 20 minutes after start of the last show of the day. Jackman Hall only sells future-day tickets for shows screening at that venue.

· Walk-up sales at each venue (cash only). Same-day tickets are only sold for that venue’s shows.

BUYING SINGLE TICKETS FOR RICHMOND HILL

· Online sales for single shows begin October 9 through reelasian.com (powered by TicketWeb) and/or throughrhcentre.ca; online sales end at 11:55 PM the day before the show. Please note that tickets purchased online through TicketWeb will be available for pick-up only at the Reel Asian Box Office in the lobby of the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts (RHCPA) after 6:00 PM on November 16. Tickets purchased online throughrhcentre.ca are available for pickup at the RHCPA Box Office 24 hours after purchase.

· Walk-up sales begin at 10:00 AM on October 10 through the RHCPA Box Office (open Mondays through Saturdays 10:00 AM-6:00 PM) – last day for walk-up advance sales in Richmond Hill is November 15. No walk-up sales available at T.O. Tix.

· During the Richmond Hill Festival (November 16-17), tickets for all shows may be purchased from the Reel Asian Box Office in the lobby of the RHCPA: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM on November 16 and 12:30 PM – 7:30 PM on November 17.

BUYING SCREENING 4-PAKS FOR RICHMOND HILL

· Online sales for Screening 4-Packs available exclusively through reelasian.com (powered by TicketWeb) from
10:00 AM on October 9 until 11:55 PM on November 5. Screening 4-Packs purchased online through TicketWeb will be available for pick-up at the will-call desk during the Toronto festival or from the Reel Asian Box Office in the lobby of the RHCPA after 6:00 PM on November 16.

· Walk-up sales available in Toronto: October 9-November 3 through T.O. Tix. No walk-up sales for Screening
4-Packs available at the RHCPA Box Office.